Shouldn't These Be on the List...?

[Nathan]

While I love the SF Masterworks I am surprised that some sci-fi titles such as George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', Ira Levin's 'This Perfect Day' (which is amazing and I think better than the 50 or so in the SF list I've read) and Yevgeny Zamyatin's 'We' are exempt from the list. Yes, they are dystopian and speculative social fiction, but they are sci-fi nonetheless. Does anyone else agree?

[Derek]

I'm usually not surprised by such things. There may be a variety of reasons why a work is not included that have nothing to do with quality.

[Nathan]

Hi Derek, thanks for the message (I'm new and it's my first post).
You're right, it is arbitrary, as most lists are, but I would have loved to see a few of my favourites bound in the snazzy SF yellow.
Has anyone else read 'We' or 'This Perfect Day'? Just asking as I'm a dystopian fiend and they're both brilliant. 'We' inspired Orwell to write 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and if you read it you can see why.

[Simon]

Indeed, I think one of the original intentions behind the series was to make the out of print classics of SF more widely available again which I think might be something to do with why "1984" is not in the series.

I don't know if you're already aware but there are some dystopian titles already in the list. A few examples:

Emphyrio
Mockingbird
The Man in the High Castle
Arslan

[Nathan]

Hi Simon,

I've read 'The Man in the High Castle' (love PKD but not this one so much), but not the others. I have Arslan on my bookshelf and in my 'to read' list, and I want to get Emphyrio too. Thanks for the suggestions!